The last steam clock: Designer of Gastown landmark plans to retire, sort of

The ‘coal cars’ inside the Scenic World Steam Clock, destined for the former mining town of Katoomba, Australia.Jason Payne
/ VANCOUVER SUN

The internal workings of Ray Saunders’ latest creation, the Scenic World Steam Clock, which is destined for Katoomba, Australia. Saunders is most famous for building Vancouver’s Gastown steam clock.Jason Payne
/ VANCOUVER SUN

The internal workings of Ray Saunders’ latest creation, the Scenic World Steam Clock, which is destined for Katoomba, Australia. Saunders is most famous for building Vancouver’s Gastown steam clock.Jason Payne
/ VANCOUVER SUN

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In 1974, the City of Vancouver approached clockmaker Ray Saunders about constructing a steam clock in Gastown.

The problem was, no one had ever built one.

But Saunders was up to the challenge. With the help of his former high school metal-shop teacher, Doug Brown, he designed a 16-foot-tall clock that plays the Westminster chimes on four whistles. On the hour, a blast of steam shoots out a fifth whistle atop the clock, like an old steam locomotive.

Every day of the year, rain or shine, dozens of tourists stand around at Cambie and Water Streets waiting for the steam to blow. The clock has become one of Vancouver’s top attractions — a Google search for “Gastown steam clock” turns up 108,000 results.

The international renown led to Saunders getting commissions to build more such clocks. There are two Saunders steam clocks in Japan, one in Indianapolis, and two more closer to home, in Coquitlam and Whistler.

This week, Saunders placed his seventh steam clock in a crate. It is bound for Katoomba, Australia (just west of Sydney), where it will anchor the plaza of Scenic World, a popular tourist site in the Blue Mountains.

The 18-foot-tall Katoomba clock is Saunders’ most elaborate — it has 12 brass whistles all tuned to different notes that will play Waltzing Matilda, and a 13th to blow steam.

It will also be his last. After nearly four decades of building steam clocks, Saunders is giving it up.

“It’s been quite a struggle to build this clock,” said Saunders. “I’ve been on it for almost four years, because I had a whiplash accident which affected me for a year.”

When he finally recovered enough to get back to work, he had another accident.

“This May, I was servicing the steam clock in Gastown,” he relates. “I had the roof propped up on the pipes and I was cleaning all the leaves out of the gutter, and the roof came down and hit me on the shoulder. So I’ve got a rotator cuff injury. I have to do everything by instructing other people.”

Saunders declines to give his age, but admits he is in the “range” of 70. He doesn’t plan to completely retire — he will still build new “sculptured timepieces” that recycle a treasure trove of antique clock mechanisms he has collected over the years.

He is quite proud of the Katoomba clock.

“This is the most complicated steam clock ever built by mankind,” he says with a laugh.

“This one was a real struggle to get in tune. There’s 12 notes, all meant to be a certain pitch, and it’s difficult to get that with a steam whistle. They’re not meant to play tunes. I did a lot of work custom-machining the whistles so they would get the right notes.”

Scenic World is located on the site of a coal mine that once boasted the steepest railway line in the world. So Saunders designed miniature coal cars, replicas of those that hauled coal up the mountain in the 1890s, to run up and down a miniature railway inside the glass housing.

“These coal cars are actually full of lead, which is what drives the clock mechanism. When the coal car comes down the track it hits the switch and the steam engine comes on and winds it back up again. And that’s what keeps the clock going.”

Above the railway is a globe fitted with LED lights that show the locations of big cities. The corners feature small picks and shovels, in another nod to mining.

Putting it all together was a group effort.

“The whole case was built here by Avant Garde Architectural Signs (in Coquitlam),” says Saunders. “I just draw it up and send them the design. They have a waterjet cutting machine that cuts it all out and doesn’t leave any burn marks. Then I had the steam engine built in England, custom-made with an automatic oiling system in it.

“I made all the coal cars, did the globe. A friend of mine did the painting (of the globe) based on NASA space pictures — the weather systems and everything.”

The Katoomba steam clock cost about $300,000 to build.

Back in the 1970s, the bill for the Gastown clock was $58,000, more than double the $25,000 Saunders thought it would cost.

“I haven’t made much profit on any of the clocks I’ve done,” he says.

Saunders got the Gastown gig because a city official had seen a Vancouver Sun story that called him the city’s premier horologist (the fancy name for clockmaker).

He had been fascinated with clocks since he was a kid.

“My dad gave me some alarm clocks to take apart, and I did that real well,” he laughs. “But I didn’t put them back together very well. Then I started tinkering with clocks, and going to Vancouver Tech, I learned how to draw.”

He repaired clocks for a decade at Woodward’s before starting his own shop, the Sculpture Studio. He amassed a sizable collection of antique clocks, which led to The Sun story and the Gastown steam clock commission.

The steam clock isn’t actually powered by steam, however.

“It runs by gravity,” he explains. “The Gastown clock runs by the steel balls coming down by gravity, and it’s wound up by the steam engine. The steam blows the whistles and runs the steam engine.”

Made from brass, copper and glass, the Gastown clock was designed to look like it was built in the 1890s or early 1900s. But it was actually unveiled on Sept. 26, 1977.

“I ask (tourists) how old the clock is, and they say ‘Oh, it’s over 100 years old’,” he says.

“And I say, ‘No it’s not.’ (If they don’t believe me), I show them my driver’s license and say ‘Come look at the plaque.’

“Then they say ‘Oh. You’re still alive?’ I say ‘Yes, I’m still alive.’”

The steam clock isn’t Saunders’ only claim to fame. He has built over 200 public clocks, including street clocks in Kerrisdale, Mount Pleasant and Coquitlam. He has also repaired local landmarks like the Birks clock, the Seymour Centre clock, and the clock at Vancouver City Hall.

“I’ve got a problem,” he says. “I’m going to be in Palm Springs when daylight-saving time changes on (Nov. 3). I usually do about a dozen different clocks in a two-day period, change the time and lubricate them. I have to notify all those people to hang in there until I get back.”

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The last steam clock: Designer of Gastown landmark plans to retire, sort of

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